There are quite a number of common problems that computer users encounter with their video graphics array (VGA), and the most prevalent of these problems are often due to the VGA drivers. This article will list the top 3 common VGA problems, and 3 simple troubleshooting solutions to resolve them.

Problem one: Your monitor’s power LED seems to flash, but there is no image displayed on screen. This could possibly mean a couple of things, but before you do something stupid like smacking the monitor hoping it will somehow jar it back to life, check to see if the connection to the computer is ok.

Sometimes even when things are all connected there may still be problems. This would most likely mean that there is something wrong with the digital/analogue connection, and you will have to look into the problem. It could be the cable itself, or it could be the port. It could also mean that you may need to have a converter, depending on how old or how new your monitor is. Not everything is a problem with the driver though, and sometimes hardware also plays quite a part in it; so you need to look at this problem from both angles.

The problem could also lie with your graphics card hardware and its drivers. One thing that you need to have is the latest drivers for the graphics card. By doing so, you can figure out the problem with ease, especially if you can eliminate drivers as being the sole cause of the problems.

First things first, make sure that you are able to verify the graphics card compatibility with both your system and the monitor. If there is still an issue with the display, then what you need to do is to get the latest drivers. You can do so by simply going online and visit the manufacturer’s website and download the drivers from there. More often than not, this is enough to solve the problem.

But if it still doesn’t work, do not worry, most of the time, blank unresponsive screens would more than often mean that you have installed a previous, outdated version of the drivers. What you can do is also to use force ware drivers, which are universal drivers for graphics card that activates the chip the same way your manufacturer has designed it. In fact, there is almost no difference when it comes to both drivers, so you can use both.

One thing unique about the display environment of the PC is that there is another set of drivers that come into play, which both facilitates and augments the capabilities of your graphics card and this is called the Direct X technology. This is a technology released by Microsoft, and a lot of the architecture built around the display driver is done so in reference to the versions of Direct X available.

Therefore, it is also crucial for you to have an updated version of Direct X, whose drivers are available on the company website and sometimes comes packaged with new games and new graphics cards that are purchased.

With these 3 common problems and 3 common tips to use, you will be able to route around many of the display driver problems that are plaguing people all over the world.

There comes a time in every computers life where things just don’t seem to go its way. We have all known the frustration and stress of using a computer that’s just a little bit too old and takes forever to do, well, anything. Usually this is only because the programs your running on it are designed for faster computers, but hey you have a computer so who cares if it’s a little slow right? After a few years of this and updating your software it gets a little bit much to handle. It results in a computer with a cursor that you can barely move until you have waited half an hour after you pushed that ON button.

When you choose to upgrade you computer, it really is a stress relieving process. But how do you know what to get? Do u only need an upgrade or should you get a brand new computer? Just the one part or multiple, and what mix should you have all power or good price?

Upgrading is good for the typical computer user, when you want to run the same programs as you were, the same operating system, but want it faster. If your looking to run high demand programs, then a new computer would be the way to go. Usually you will need to upgrade at least three parts for a major upgrade. Motherboard, CPU and ram. Realistically you only need to upgrade the CPU to get better performance from your computer (the majority of the time), but because of advancement in technology it’s hard to find the same socket CPU as you could get four or five years ago, and if you can it’s most likely outdated or obsolete stock that’s not supported anymore. I’d suggest it’s not going to be a wise decision to buy it. So now you need to buy the CPU and the thing to put it in, the motherboard. Every upgrade should contain more ram. No matter how long ago you bought your computer, you could probably use more RAM (random access memory).

RAM is temporary storage the computer uses to do calculations and processes within programs. You will most likely relate best when I describe the computer as getting chunky, when the mouse seems to take forever to move, and the programs just aren’t loading. This is when the RAM is full, or getting close to full. Getting more of it just means that the computer will take longer to get to that point.

So what should you buy, good value or the best performance. If the technology is going to be outdated in 5 years, why get the best performance? If you buy the best value right now, you could have to upgrade sooner, like two or three years down the track. When you upgrade, its best to go for a midway point. A lot of the best hardware 6 months from now will be half the price it is today, some of the best value will be off the market. As a general rule of thumb you can tell how good the hardware is by how much it costs, this is not perfect but it’s a good generalization.

The most costly CPU will, in most cases, be the best performance. You want to get a little over the mid-range to get a good mix between value and performance. If the most expensive CPU is $1000 you would want maybe a $600 one. This CPU will still be very good in performance, but it will last a fairly long time in doing the things you normally do.

If you wanted to upgrade your computer for another reason, for instance to make the computer work well for CAD work or to a gaming computer. It would probably be best to upgrade your graphics card as well. The graphics card plays a major part in the performance of your computer when anything visual is involved.

The motherboard and ram are still important, but there’s a different rule of thumb. If it’s a general use computer then I would imagine that your not looking at small percentage increases in performance, any motherboard with the right socket will pretty much do fine. The higher priced motherboards do have a lot of extra features and marginal performance increases. I would not recommend getting the bottom of the line, but unless your upgrading to a gaming computer there’s no need for the extra features.

The RAM rule of thumb is this. Anything with a lifetime warranty. All no-name brand ram I’ve seen (the ones with a 1 year or 3 year warranty) have had drastic performance drops even for home use. All decent brands offer a lifetime warranty and aren’t usually that much more expensive, maybe $10-$20 extra.

Upgrading is best done within about 3 to 4 years of when you bought the computer. This way you won’t have a massive upgrade bill, and you won’t have old unreliable parts. If your computer is more than six years old I’d recommend buying a new computer instead of upgrading.

Background programs running:

This is the biggest reason and can be fixed quickly and for free… it’s possible that your computer may have so many background programs running simultaneously that there is not enough resources to run normally.

The end result of this is that your computer begins to run more and more slowly over time as you add other programs.

There are two remedies, get Anti-Spyware and use the feature which allows you to view running programs and to disable any of those running programs. Or, if you like to get into your system with your bare hands, use the remedy below.

How to disable unneeded background programs:

All icons in your computers system tray are background programs using memory. There are more, but you will get a hint from that system tray. To see and exit all running background programs:

Windows 95 – ME

a. Press the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys at the same time.

b. Click any program or task except Explorer or Systray,

c. and then click End Task.

Repeat steps b and c to quit all programs except Explorer and Systray which are necessary components of Microsoft Windows.

You should now have a clean system. See if the computer runs like it used to… if it does, you will want to prevent those programs from restarting the next time you start the computer.

If you don’t want any background programs starting when you restart the system, and you know what you are doing, you can run msconfig from the run menu and completely disable what you find in the ‘Startup’ tab. If you aren’t that experienced and you want a safe way to disable all those unneeded background programs, get the remedy recommended for the spyware on this page. It has a feature allowing you to disable startup programs safely.

Windows XP through 2003 Server

a. Press the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys at the same time.

b. Choose ‘Task Manager’ tab to view and end any running programs.

c. disabling these programs will require that you change their startup properties in the ‘Administrative Tools’ area of your system. The Windows Help menu will walk you though that process if you search ‘disable programs’ in your help section.

Spyware:

Many kinds of software add themselves to your system start menu without even asking your permission. Sometimes you will click on a link or visit a hacker website that installs spyware on your computer without you knowing. NOADWARE is what i use and its free to try.

Fragmented hard drive:

This results from programs being loaded and deleted. Run the Window’s hard drive defragmenter (Defrag) once a month. It is under your System Tools menu. Your computer’s help menu will tell you how to do it.

Other problems: (Possible, but unlikely to cause problems)

You could have old or conflicting Windows device drivers. An example would be you might actually have two entirely different video drivers on your system and Windows could actually be alternately using both of them.

To prevent this problem, First boot the computer in Safe Mode by pressing and holding the F8 key during startup, after the DOS memory check has completed.

While in Safe Mode select Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Devices. Click on all the devices and see if the various drivers have any yellow or red exclamation marks (which indicates a driver conflict) and also determine if there are any duplicate drivers that can be eliminated.

You may have to delete and reload a driver to correct these problems. Duplicate drivers can and should be deleted.

As each new Windows program is installed and uninstalled, it leaves behind parts of itself that can slow down or crash your computer. These are mostly .dlls and other shared files.

It’s also very possible when uninstalling a program that needed Windows system files can be deleted. When your computer asks if you want to uninstall shared files it’s usually safest to say no — even if your uninstall program claims the files are not being used.

Old Windows drivers can be found by booting into Safe Mode, then opening Control Panel/System/Devices and ridding your system of old drivers.

Otherwise, the only real answer to this problem is to pick up ERROR DOCTOR or just reload Windows into a new directory which eliminates all old junk and leftover files. Reloading Windows is something to do last, as you will also have to reload all your Windows settings, drivers, and programs.

You could be lacking system memory – The only time this may be a problem is if you have an older system and upgraded your operating system without adding some more memory. You should probably upgrade to 256 or 512MB or more of system memory, while it isn’t free, it isn’t very expensive like it was at one time. Check Tiger Direct to find great deals on memory.

Companies like Logitech and Creative’s innovative foray into the multimedia and audio market have definitely enhanced the multimedia facet of the computer. They have contributed to the great increase of technology within this sector and the amounts of new products that have been coming in are legendary.

With THX certified sound cards, multimedia hubs and cutting edge speakers in the mix, there are more and more things for you to choose from if you so decide to trump up your computer with the latest and greatest multimedia audio solutions for your computer. But with all this technology, of course there comes a problem.

In the world of computing, there are many combinations and configurations of computers that cannot be numbered and counted, and while the R&D divisions of these companies are top rate, they cannot possibly keep up with the exponential growth of customisability options that the PC has in store for end users.

So there are bound to be conflicts and mistakes, and one of the most common one is the device manager error, which shows a yellow exclamation mark next to either the new product that has been installed or the audio and multimedia devices already in the computer. The reasons for this occurrence number in the dozens, but this article will discuss a bit on how you can resolve the issue without having to grapple with cumbersome tech support, return your product or even lug your entire CPU to the repair store. One of the problems with this is outdated drivers, which conflicts mostly with the OS and its internal driver database.

So what you need to do is to ensure that you have the latest drivers on hand and ready to use. This can be found on the manufacturer’s website and you can check if you have the latest drivers. If you have the latest drivers and you still have the problem, then it is on to phase 2, which is essentially you hitting the tech forums and searching for your problems. The good thing is that there will definitely be people who have either encountered exactly the same problem as you or have a problem that is quite similar.

Check for the responses on the forums for ways to work around this or if there is no topic set, then you need to post one up. Make sure you include a detailed write up of your PC configuration and the make and model number of your product. And of course, you need to write what exactly the problem is. An informed user will reply you are the webmasters and the tech support people will give you the steps you need to take to resolve the issue.

Reinstalling the product may be one way after a clean re start of the computer, but of course, that is a rudimentary approach to the problem and you might need to do much more to get the problem solved. With these troubleshooting tips, your ‘multimedia audio controller driver not found’ problem will be a thing of the past.

Is your PC slow, crappy and takes a while to start unlike the first time you first used it? There are many reasons why this is happening, nonetheless, there are several things that you can do to make your computer faster. Here are nine tips to help you through.

1. Upgrade the RAM
One of the most obvious things that you need to do to improve the functionality of your system is to upgrade your RAM. Most people tend to forget this. Nowadays, it is even cheaper to buy a RAM especially if you buy from eBay or Amazon.

2. Do away with the unnecessary software
PC usually comes with some software that you may not need them. You need to uninstall all of them and look for better alternatives. For instance, your PC might come with software like HP Image Zone, CD $DVD Burning or Record Now software so you need to uninstall them and replace them with Nero or Picasa which will help fix PC errors.

3. Look for an all-in-one solution for IM Needs
If you have more than two IM clients installed, you need to uninstall all of them and get Digs-by since it is an all-in-one solution.

4. Delay start-up for auto loading programs
You need to install the Start up Delayer software such that not all the programs starts once you log in.

5. Reduce programs that start-up automatically
Programs that start-up automatically can severely reduce the normal functioning of your PC. You need to disable the auto loading of applications.

6. Tweak animation setting and windows’ Display
Here, you need to click on “My Computer” then “Settings”, Performance and then uncheck the box under “Animate windows when maximizing and minimizing”.

7. Disable Desktop shortcuts
Shortcuts in your desktop not only increase the start up time of your system but, also are an insufficient way to start-up your system.

8. Keep one Browser only
By so doing, you will be getting rid of some unnecessary applications.

9. Scan for Viruses, Spy-ware and Mal-ware
This is thus the most important thing to do when cleaning up your computer. You should have a firewall, anti-spy-ware, anti-virus and you need to scan regularly for these things.

Even the best web hosting service providers cannot promise you a server free of any down time. As a layman, this is the time when you are not able to access the website (you often see the message saying “Host unavailable” or “unable to locate host”) or the speed of extracting the data from the website is very poor. However, for an entrepreneur having a business online, the server down time could be the worst nightmare, for this is the time when he may lose potential customers.

Though the regulations say that a server having more than 1% downtime (i.e. 3 days in a year) is technically not acceptable, in practical situations, even the best web hosting providers perform otherwise, although many have an excellent web monitoring facility.

However, at some times, the problem may not be located at the server end. If you are having a hard time editing your website & still not able to see the changes, here are a few tips that may come in handy. Check with your FTP software (Dreamweaver or so) for any blockages or restrictions created for your IP. Certain changes in your cpanel can also lead to unwanted consequences.

If the problem persists, do consult the customer care. Do not forget to add your IP address, the total duration of the down time experienced (some may experience ups & downs in the accessibility speed to the website) in the correspondence email. It is nice to know that unlike the breakdowns experiences in the past, down times are healed much faster nowadays.

Troubleshooting computer network is among the most important job descriptions of the network administrators, system administrators, network technicians and the IT consultants. A computer network can have different kinds of problems such as it can be infected with virus and spyware, attacked by hackers, accessed by unauthorized users and may face connectivity failure issues due to the faulty network devices or configurations. Following is a list of the basic network troubleshooting commands that are built-in the Windows based operating systems and UNIX etc. The right use of these troubleshooting commands can helps a lot in diagnosing and resolving the issues with your computer network.

PING

Ping is the most important troubleshooting command and it checks the connectivity with the other computers. For example your system’s IP address is 10.10.10.10 and your network servers’ IP address is 10.10.10.1 and you can check the connectivity with the server by using the Ping command in following format.

At DOS prompt type Ping 10.10.10.1 and press enter

If you get the reply from the server then the connectivity is ok and if you get the error message like this “Request time out” this means the there is some problem in the connectivity with the server.

IPCONFIG

IPconfig is another important command in Windows. It shows the IP address of the computer and also it shows the DNS, DHCP, Gateway addresses of the network and subnet mask.

At DOS prompt type ipconfig and press enter to see the IP address of your computer.

At DOS prompt type inconfig/all and press enter to see the detailed information.

NSLOOKUP

NSLOOKUP is a TCP/IP based command and it checks domain name aliases, DNS records, operating system information by sending query to the Internet Domain Name Servers. You can resolve the errors with the DNS of your network server

HOSTNAME

Hostname command shows you the computer name.

At DOS prompt type Hostname and press enter

NETSTAT

NETSTAT utility shows the protocols statistics and the current established TCP/IP connections in the computer.

NBTSTAT

NBTSTAT helps to troubleshoot the NETBIOS name resolutions problems.

ARP

ARP displays and modifies IP to Physical address translation table that is used by the ARP protocols.

FINGER

Finger command is used to retrieve the information about a user on a network.

TRACERT

Tracert command is used to determine the path of the remote system. This tool also provides the number of hops and the IP address of each hop. For example if you want to see that how many hops (routers) are involved to reach any URL and what’s the IP address of each hop then use the following command.

At command prompt type tracert www.yahoo.com you will see a list of all the hops and their IP addresses.

TRACEROUTE

Traceroute is a very useful network debugging command and it is used in locating the server that is slowing down the transmission on the internet and it also shows the route between the two systems

ROUTE

Route command allows you to make manual entries in the routing table.

Hopefully the above mentioned commands will help you to diagnose the troubleshooting your computer networking problems.

An Operating System is in a crude sense, software (probably the most complicated one) which creates an interface between various applications, the computer hardware and the user (i.e. the input end). The most common operating system is definitely the Windows OS, developed & maintained by Microsoft Corporation. In a common man’s language, an OS is something which gives your desktop or laptop device a true meaning.

If you are thinking of establishing an online business related to computing and development, you need to select an optimum operating system, the way you select an appropriate web hosting package based on your Internet needs. In a similar fashion to a web hosting package, you need to chalk out your business requirements, your budget, prime aims & so on, from your operating system. You need to decide whether your OS will be staying on standalone machines or will be distributed & used on a multi-user network.

Unlike the regular user-friendly operating systems, there are some – like the UNIX based systems, which have been developed exclusively for large scale servers and commercial workstations. Many of them are ‘linked’ to their specific hardware. LINUX systems, though designed on the UNIX code, are much versatile in their application & are more user-friendly. The Macintosh OS is developed on the same platform and is primarily associated with Apple computers. Chrome, developed by Google, is an ultra light OS and is primarily aimed at those who are hooked up to the Internet most of their time.

Every online transaction (beginning from a single click anywhere on the web page) is recorded at both ends viz. your computer & the website server. When a third party records these clicks of yours, you can conclude that your Internet session is no longer safe. So if this is the case for amateur surfers, think about the stringent security measures you have to take when you have to protect your own website & its data from going into the wrong hands. A package from a reliable web hosting company & a few security tips will ensure your Internet sessions are safer for you as well as the viewers of your website.

A reliable web hosting company refers to one who will provide you the optimum security features & control over your web space. Opt for those who will help you troubleshoot your online as well as offline issues 24/7. Some may include an online firewall which will prevent data thefts & malicious attacks on your website.

These services, though premium, are a must for those who have commercial gains from their online business.
If you are using a software like Dreamweaver or so to manage your website & synchronize the data, carefully go through the user manual & troubleshooting guide. It is better to spend ample time over the technical things rather than repenting over the losses later. You can always communicate with your web hosting company to chalk out strategies which will help you make optimum use of your resources, technologies & to get troubleshooting aid for any problems that you may come across.

There are many ways to make PC faster and restore it into the great machine it use to be. Listed here below are some of the tips that will help you to fix PC errors and to get rid of all the junk that you do not require.

Upgrade RAM

This is the most obvious tip which many people tend to forget. The cost of RAM nowadays is low, especially if you buy from dealers which are reputed. Upgrading your RAM should be your number one priority when you want to clean up your computer.

Do away with unnecessary Software

Most PCs comes with unnecessary software which you need to uninstall them all. This unneeded software will be of no use and thus uninstalling them will be the best thing to do. You have to replace them with software that you need.

Restrict programs which start automatically

Those programs which start automatically once your windows starts can have adverse effects on the load time of your PC. If you want to cut down the number of programs that starts automatically, you have to download Revo Uninstaller. You have to be careful when disabling these auto loading applications. If you do not know the purpose of any application, do not disable.

Disable Desktop Shortcuts

Desktop shortcuts not only increase startup time of your PC but they are also an inefficient way of opening stuff. Desktop shortcuts are a waste since there are so many efficient ways of opening applications like the Quick Launch Menu, Start Menu, or through software like Launchy.

Check for Spyware, Viruses, and Malware on regular basis

You need to have:

o Firewall
o Anti-spyware application
o Anti-virus application
o Regular scan for spyware, virus and so on.

These are some of the tips that will help you to make PC faster.